
NOTE.—"How beggared earthly speech appears when we essay by it to pic-
ture the glory that shall be revealed for us! . . . What it will be we cannot
express. We only know some evils from which it will be free. It shall be
incorruptible,
like the God and Father (Romans 1:23) who bestows it.
Eternal,
it shall contain within it no seed of decay, nothing which can cause
it to perish. . . . It shall be undefiled, for we are to
,
share it with our
Elder Brother, our High Priest (Hebrews 7:26), who is now made higher
than the heavens."—The
Expositor's Bible,
James, Jude, Peter; First Peter,
page 20.
The Value of Trials
11.
By what are the believers kept while they await the "blessed
hope"? 1 Peter 1:5-7. Compare Heb. 7:25; 12:4-8, 11.
NOTE.-"But,
thanks and praise to our God, the enemy cannot prevail.
`Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further.' The all-prevailing intercession of
our divine Advocate sustains the faith so sorely tried, carries the soul through
the deep and dark waters, restores the broken link of communion, heals the
spiritual wounds, lifts up the fallen one, brings back the wanderer, and fills
the heart with praise and thanksgiving. 'I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not; and when thou art restored, strengthen thy brethren.' "—C. H.
Mackintosh,
Simon Peter,
page 68.
Peter must have recalled the trial of his faith and the remarkable way
in which his Master brought him through. Now he assures his readers of the
preciousness of their faith, and pleads that the trials before them will only
purify and enrich it and preserve it to the glory and honor of their Master at
His coming.
12.
How does Peter account for the unspeakable joy which
possessed these Christians in Asia Minor? 1 Peter 1:8.
13.
What will be the reward of genuine faith in Jesus? 1 Peter
1:9. Compare 1 John 5:4; Heb. 11:1, 39, 40.
Note.—"`Great is the reward in heaven' of those who are witnesses for
Christ through persecution and reproach. While the people are looking for
earthly good, Jesus points them to a heavenly reward. But He does not place
it all in the future life; it begins here. The Lord appeared of old time to
Abraham, and said, am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' This
is the reward of all who follow Christ. Jehovah Immanuel—He 'in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' in whom dwells 'all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily'—to be brought into sympathy with Him, to
know Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His
attributes; to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of
Christ, to comprehend more and more 'what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God,'—`this is the heritage of
the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.' "
—Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing,
page 57.
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